This application claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 2003-32555, filed on May 22, 2003, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a position detection system using scanning probe microscopy (SPM) technology of a data storage apparatus, and a position detection method performed by the position detection system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a position detection system using scanning probe microscopy (SPM) technology, methods of detecting positions using a probe include methods of detecting relative positions of data areas after setting a reference position, and methods of detecting absolute positions of the data areas.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,956,817, 5,241,527, 5,257,024, 5,278,704, 5,589,686, and 5,744,799 disclose relative position detecting methods for moving a single probe from a reference position toward a desired position by calculating the number of patterns on a surface of a recording medium having regular patterns such as electric patterns, magnetic patterns, or surface patterns. However, if, in a relative position detection method, the number of-patterns is miscalculated or the patterns cannot be read due to an external disturbance, the desired position must be detected again from the reference position. Therefore, the time required for detecting the position increases and the time required for recording and reproducing information also increases. Also, if the pattern is damaged, errors may accumulate when moving to the desired position, a medium forming the patterns and a medium recording/reproducing the information may be different from each other due to an error in the manufacturing process. If the error is generated on the patterns, it is difficult to correct the error.
In a method of detecting absolute position, a position of a data bit is determined by differences in electrostatic capacitances of an electrostatic capacitance sensor connected to a probe, without using the probe directly. This method has high sensitivity, however, and an error between an actual position and the position corresponding to the electrostatic capacitance is large due to non-linearity of a sensor and non-linearity of a spring supporting the recording medium.